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"We want to be subversive, to transform our audience, to confront them with some disarming statements, backed up by facts-and great visuals-and hopefully convert them." -The Guerrilla Girls

Pablo Picasso, speaking of his now world-famous anti-war painting, Guernica, boldly declared: "Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy."

Whether you call it artistic activism or artivism, the compound word keeps gaining traction. The use of creative expression to cultivate awareness and social change spans various disciplines including visual art, poetry, music, film, and theater. To make their points, artivists cleverly employ parody or satire through culture jamming and other forms of subvertising-a portmanteau of subvert and advertising- to change the original meaning of a well-known image or corporate logo. The Guerrilla Girls were making the most of anonymity around a decade before Banksy, first donning gorilla masks in 1985 to point out gender and racial imbalance through humor and facts.

Since co-founding The Center for Artistic Activism in 2009, Steve Lambert and Steve Duncombe have trained and mentored over 1,500 artists and activists around the world. Duncombe is an activist, author, and professor of Media and Culture at New York University. Lambert, an artist and professor of New Media at Purchase College, New York, does not use the term artivism; he feels it implies the need for a new term to describe a long-standing combination.

While artivism is said to have started with the Chicano movement in Los Angeles in the late 1960's, Lambert and Duncombe investigated further. "We had a hunch that art and activism were a powerful combination..., but when we tried to dig back to the beginning, there was always something that came before," says Lambert. "When you start looking closely, every successful activist movement involves creativity, culture, and innovation," Duncombe adds. "What we realized in the end is that *all successful activism is artistic activism*."

Lambert points out that most activist organizations - and sometimes even artists themselves - seriously underestimate the role artists can play. "They can do so much more than simply help to 'raise awareness,' he explains. "Limiting artists to that role doesn't tap into much more potent ways creativity works within movements."

Dannie Snyder is an interdisciplinary artivist as well as the co-host of Re-Flect/Calibrate. In this podcast, she focuses on professional artivists and the genealogy of the field. "Since I began my studies in film and theater," shares Snyder, "I have focused on using art as a means for social change, because I feel like my life is more fulfilling if my art does more than just entertain, when it significantly impacts culture and society." She is currently focusing her own efforts on several causes including Prison Abolition and Free the Vaccine. "To tackle complex issues like the criminal justice system, we absolutely require creative problem solvers and visionaries...."

When evaluating an effective campaign, Snyder considers how artivists are changing behaviors, pointing out the difference between merely raising awareness through the use of a hashtag versus inspiring measurable responses such as visible, physical actions. Starting with a clear objective, artivists must be willing to ponder creative routes and employ tactics to measure the efficacy of their intentions, she says.

While mass production of an image is certainly one approach, this can lead to a fine line between activist-driven art and propaganda." With propaganda, there is less room for interpretation," Snyder explains. "Propaganda tells you exactly what to think, feel, and do, whereas good artivism should inspire critical thinking and empathy."

Peggy Diggs of Galisteo, NM refers to herself as an art worker concerned with social justice. "I don't tend to think that any one person can change anyone's beliefs, much less behavior," says Diggs. "I think attitudes can be cumulatively nudged towards justice if people are presented with multiple renditions of thinking not like their own."

Her first public piece was the Domestic Violence Milk Carton Project in 1992, consisting of 1.5 million milk cartons in four different designs. The artist's extensive research into the battered women's movement included interviews with two women imprisoned for killing their abusive partners-one of whom suggested a grocery display where others affected by domestic violence could see the work. "The hardest part was finding a dairy that would do it," shares Diggs.

Since around 2007, the artist has been exploring racism, often in the form of distributed multiples including business cards and junk mail. She was prompted by a grim personal discovery: "After my dad's death that year, I found among his old family papers a receipt for a slave. That did it."

After interviewing participants about race to create her Being White series, Diggs challenges white viewers to explore their privilege. "I think now my target audience is older White people, folks raised with an unquestioning belief that being White ... It's the unquestioning part that I want to grapple with."

While Diggs also creates gallery work, she says: "I love public work because what intrigues me is taking very familiar formats-yard signs, paper napkins, billboards-and using them in unexpected ways. So much media flies by us, but I think this approach trips folks up and they are likely to pay attention."

Artivist Votan Ik, whose tribal affiliations are Maya and Nahua, is the founder of NSRGNTS, an art collective and brand that advocates for Native Rights. A muralist and street artist, Ik frequently collaborates with his partner, Leah "Povi" Lewis, (Pueblo/Hopi/Zuni/Diné).

"Without art, there is no culture. Artists evolve the culture, preserve the culture," says Ik. "As an Indigenous artist, 'I' cannot take credit for my art entirely on my own," he adds. "When 'I' speak of the work, 'I' replace the 'I' with 'We,' for we (ancestors, colleagues, community, family, friends, and at times foes....) all make this possible."

With the assistance of Lewis and NSRGNTS member Derek Brown (Diné), in 2017 Ik created the mural Ganawenjiige Onigam (She Watches Over Duluth) at the American Indian Community Housing Organization in Duluth, MN in part to shed light on an epidemic of kidnapped Indigenous women, as well as to honor the water protectors at Standing Rock.

Ik hopes that his work will inspire viewers to get involved through whatever means possible. "Raising awareness is the first step, but creating actual change is the goal," he shares. "Although people tend to view the work we do as targeting Indigenous people, we'd like to express the idea that all people are indigenous (even the four-legged and winged and so on). Everyone is indigenous to somewhere, and being indigenous is being human."

They created all five of their 2020 murals for free, "to inspire hope and resilience throughout the country." Getting paid for their work, however, serves their cause, allowing them to provide projects for communities who might not otherwise have the funding.

There is an ethics debate regarding artistic activists profiting from their work, based on an expectation to volunteer and donate. "Funding is...crucial," Ik observes. "We do live in a country fueled by capital, and we must support underpaid or unpaid artists for their dauntless expression and involvement. Society tends to see art as a hobby and not a career."

The artivist cites Jane Fonda, Ricky Martin, and Jaden Smith as examples of creatives who engage in activism. "What they do with their earnings is not in question, we just accept their involvement." He adds that activist musicians Public Enemy, Bob Marley, and Bob Dylan are not perceived as exploiting the cause. "Instead of seeing ourselves as separate and benefiting from it, we see ourselves as an extension and expression of it."

Artist Jon Ching agrees. "Do we demand that David Attenborough, Bill McKibben, or Jane Goodall donate all of their work for the sake of the planet? No, but perhaps we would if they identified as artists."

Ching feels that he is just stepping into his artivist identity. He has released a giclée with Andy Okay to benefit the Rainforest Trust, with another planned in support of Amazon Frontlines. He was also a host of Our Planet Week, where art inspired by climate and environmental themes was turned into 5,000 trees. "When I donate work to raise funds for trees... and see it become a forest that will hopefully last a century or more, the monetary value of that one painting is eclipsed by the enduring value of that action," shares the artivist. This summer, Ching will support specific endangered species through smaller fundraising efforts, and later this year will release a giclée with the PangeaSeed Foundation.

Ching now lives in Los Angeles, but grew up surrounded by the natural beauty of O'ahu, Hawai'i. "I've always wanted to use my artistic voice to raise awareness about environmental issues," he says. "Now my approach is to explore the beauty of nature to spark reverence and appreciation in hopes that it leads to concern and protection."

A self-trained artist, Ching's surreal style speaks to the core of his work. "I want to show that everything is connected and that protecting nature is actually protecting ourselves. When I paint a bird whose feathers are flowers or leaves, it's because at some level, everything is connected and thus the health of one is the health of the other. My call to action is to remember the magic and awe that is this planet."

The Center for Artistic Activism's new book and accompanying workbook to empower activist artists, The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible (O/R Books), will be available in June. Lambert encourages stretching beyond the goals of raising awareness, inspiring dialogue, and communicating a message: "Artistic activism can change behaviors, our dreams, and our sense of what's possible, and it can impact power and policy."

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Artivism: Making a Difference Through Art | Art & Object

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Using art as a means for social change, artivists can change the world

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This article contains the content from the 7/02/2020 Bioneers Pulse newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter straight to your inbox! Artivism = art + activism
Art is meant to elicit emotion. That's what makes it a powerful tool for activists to advance movements of peace, love and justice. Art confronts social issues in ways that words alone cannot. From dance and theatre to painting and poetry, creative expression helps people share experiences and speak to the heart. Bioneers has always featured engaged arts and artists as core components of our annual conference.

This week, we explore how visionary artists around the world are critiquing the world's most pressing challenges while inspiring hope and advancing solutions. The featured image is " Unite " by Barbara Jones-Hogu, 1971.

The Thrive Choir: Harmonies of Liberation

Oakland's Thrive Choir, a collective of passionate activist musicians, has created a groundbreaking model of what a fully engaged vocal ensemble rooted in community can do to inspire and galvanize its audiences. We spoke with three leading members of the choir, Austin Willacy, Kyle Lemle and Joyous Dawn, to explore their history, motivation and process.

"Creating music in groups and singing with other people have always been powerfully healing practices, and that's as important now as ever, or more so, even if we have to do it online," says Dawn. "And art can play different roles. One thing it can offer is a kind of chronicle of what's happening right now, but it can share it in a way that's not just intellectual (which is also important of course). It can convey the feeling of the current moment in a form that's charged with creative spirit and that can reach people in a different, more direct way."
Read more and watch Thrive Choir perform here.

Ancient Arctic Wisdom and Cutting-Edge Sounds: Zarina Kopyrina of OLOX

Indescribable performer Zarina Kopyrina (one half of the musical duet OLOX) discusses her roots in Siberia's Yakutia region, steeped in an ancient and still vibrant shamanic culture, and her extraordinary life trajectory that has taken her from a tiny village in one of the remotest and coldest places on the planet to playing her mind-bendingly original and hauntingly beautiful music around the globe.
Read more and watch OLOX perform here.
Your Invitation to Truth Mandala: A Community Ritual for Honoring Our Grief, Anger and Love for the World

This Sunday, July 5, join Bioneers Co-Founder Nina Simons for this two-hour ceremony, which will create a brave space to experience, witness and (if desired) express emotions you may be feeling about systemic racism, state violence, climate, the pandemic and all the roiling changes, challenges and movements uprising at this time.
Learn more and register here.

Facing our Wounds: A New Narrative for a Time of Awakening

Jerry Tello is one of the most beloved wisdom teachers and brilliant storytellers we know. Of Mexican, Texan and Coahuiltecan roots, Jerry was raised in the South Central/Compton areas of Los Angeles and has dedicated himself for four decades to transformational healing, to the mentoring of men and boys of color, to racial justice, and to community peace and mobilization.

In this interview, Jerry discusses how we can begin to address the imbalances and injustices in our society by taking a deep look at the false narratives that have dominated our culture for far too long, and how we can begin to reclaim our understanding of the sacredness and interconnectedness of all things.
Read more here.

Art As Social Change: Birthing the Dawn Of A New Day | John Densmore & Climbing PoeTree

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." (Bertolt Brecht). John Densmore, legendary drummer of the Doors, joins visionary spoken word duo Climbing PoeTree in an exploration of creativity and social change. This episode of Bioneers Radio features exclusive interviews with the artists and a special Bioneers performance of Jim Morrison's poem, "American Prayer."
Listen to the podcast episode here.

New Bioneers Media Collection: "Artivism" for Social Change

All significant movements for positive change are accompanied by outpourings of artistic expression that help open our eyes to injustice and convey powerful new visions and possibilities.

This key role of the arts in social movements is as true today as it's ever been, and we at Bioneers have sought to feature the work of groundbreaking socially and eco-engaged artists from across different disciplines.
Browse the collection here.
What We're Tracking

Schumacher Conversations: Envisioning a New Economics

The annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures represent some of the foremost voices on a new economics, including a number of visionaries from the Bioneers community. Join Bill McKibben, Gar Alperovitz, David Orr and more in celebration of the 40th anniversary Schumacher Conversations series.

Registration for each virtual meeting is free, and the series begins on Thursday, July 9. Sign up today for the opportunity to hear these speakers reflect on their previous Schumacher Lectures given current economic, social, ecological and political realities.
Learn more & register. This article contains the content from the 7/02/2020 Bioneers Pulse newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter straight to your inbox!

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Artivism: Painting a Future of Justice and Peace - Bioneers

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This article contains the content from the 7/02/2020 Bioneers Pulse newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter straight to your inbox! Artivism = art + activism Art is meant to elicit emotion. That's what makes it a powerful tool for activists to advance movements of peace, love and justice.

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XQ Visual Arts and Activism Challenge ft. BMike | Rethink Together

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Explore the issues you care about through visual art. Join a community, watch videos, create and submit your art to win prizes.

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Videos, Articles and Resources.

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Artistic Activism is a dynamic practice combining the creative power of the arts to move us emotionally with the strategic planning of activism necessary to bring about social change.

Art and activism do different work in the world. Activism, as the name implies, is the activity of challenging and changing power relations. There are many ways of doing activism and being an activist, but the common element is an activity targeted toward a discernible end. Simply put, the goal of activism is action to create an Effect.

Art, on the other hand, tends not to have such a clear target. It's hard to say what art is for or against; its value often lies in providing us perspective and new ways to envision our world. Its effect is often subtle and hard to measure, and confusing or contradictory messages can be layered into the work. Good art always contains a surplus of meaning: something we can't quite describe or put our finger on, but moves us nonetheless. Its goal, if we can even use that word, is to stimulate a feeling, move us emotionally, or alter our perception. Art, equally simply stated, is an expression that generates Affect.

At first glance these aims seem at odds with one another. Activism moves the material world, while Art moves the heart, body and soul. In fact, however, they are complimentary. Social change doesn't just happen, it happens because people decide to make change. As any seasoned activist can tell you, people just don't decide to change their mind and act accordingly, they are personally moved to do so by emotionally powerful stimuli. We're moved by affective experiences to do physical actions that result in concrete effects: Affect leads to Effect. We might think of this as Affective Effect, or perhaps, Effective Affect. Or, combined in a new word, Æffect (pronounced Aye-fect).

Artistic Activism is a practice aimed at generating Æffect: emotionally resonant experiences that lead to measurable shifts in power.

The first rule of guerilla warfare is to know the terrain and use it to your advantage. Today, this doesn't mean studying maps of the mountains of Cuba or the jungles of Vietnam. Our modern political terrain is a highly mediated landscape of signs and symbols, story and spectacle. To operate successful on this cultural topography we need to observe, analyze and respond creatively. We need to be Artistic Activists.

We may like to think of politics as a purely rational business, where sensible people logically discuss and debate the issues at hand, come to a reasoned decision, and then judiciously act. Certainly this is how politics has been taught to us in our civics classes. But as recent developments in cognitive science suggest, humans don't think and behave this way: we make sense of our world through stories and symbols that frame the information we receive and then act accordingly. The principles governing civic action are more likely to be found in the worlds of popular culture and entertainment, and artistic expression and reception, than in textbooks of political science.

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LibGuides: Artistic Activism for Social Change: About

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Artistic Activism is a dynamic practice combining the creative power of the arts to move us emotionally with the strategic planning of activism necessary to bring about social change. Art and activism do different work in the world. Activism, as the name implies, is the activity of challenging and changing power relations.

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The aim of activist artists is to create art that is a form of political or social currency, actively addressing cultural power structures rather than representing them or simply describing them. In describing the art she makes, the activist artist Tania Bruguera said, 'I don't want art that points to a thing. I want art that is the thing'.

Activist art is about empowering individuals and communities and is generally situated in the public arena with artists working closely with a community to generate the art.

Some artists concerned with activist art, are also involved in direct action, like the Women On Waves Foundation, a feminist art collective that runs a floating abortion clinic, carrying out abortions in places where they are not legal.

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Tate glossary definition for activist art: Term used to describe art that is grounded in the act of 'doing' and addresses political or social issues

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Social Art

Where the arts thrive, freedom of expression thrives. Art can directly empower the most vulnerable members of society. How does art create social change? Today, artists are committing themselves to create works that address pressing social issues. Using their platform to advocate for changes that the world needs. While some artists use traditional forms of art to make work that reflects on social change others are reaching out - adhering new mediums. This engages communities in an interactive exchange. For example, an artwork might take the form of a website, a street performance, a story exchange, or an urban planning project. Socially engaged art ignites outrage and demands for change. Creating, a platform for reflection, collaboration, and building community. These artistic expressions focus on the community, whether it is local or global.

The Art Critic 1919-20 Raoul Hausmann 1886-1971 Purchased 1974 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T01918

Many movements in art history have tried to change society in one way or another. Responding to the first world war, Dada artists advocated for silliness and nonsensical behavior in daily life. Groups like the Situationist International played a major role in the revolutionary Paris events of 1968. Exposing the divisions between artists, consumers, and the means of production. And of course, art takes the form of protest, when addressing political and social issues with direct action.

Art Politics

In 1969 a group of Moroccan artist known as the Casablanca School traveled to Marrakech. Owing to the majority of their style to the aesthetic of Bauhaus in Germany, they staged an exhibition in the street. Tapping into the history of abstraction in Arabic art, and heavily influenced by the "hard-edge" paintings in New York by Frank Stella or Elsworth Kelly. They staged an exhibition in the streets. The paintings hung on the city's dusty walls, were a riot of color and pattern. Taking place near the city medina the Exposition-Manifeste intended to snub the official showroom of Moroccan art.

In more current events, companies like Facebook have faced backlash from censoring art. So much so that they were forced to meet with activist protesting the site's stance on female nudity. The #FreetheNipple movement is bringing awareness to the constant inequalities women face when bearing their bodies.

How Art brings about Social Change

In 2014, a Pakistani teenager called Saba Qaiser was shot by her father and uncle and thrown into a river. It was her punishment for having eloped with a man she loved. Saba survived and became the protagonist of the documentary about so-called honor killings. A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness. The film went on to win an Oscar.

A Girl in The River, Still, 2014

After seeing the film, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promised to take a tougher line on honor killings. Consequently, he fulfilled his promise. Parliament passed a new law that will make it much harder for the perpetrators to walk free.

In this case, through the power of storytelling, the Pakistani people called for change. Good art educates and creates empathy, and empathy and understanding leads to change. Global leaders in business and politics are increasingly aware of this. Investitures in art is a way of engaging with communities. Thus, improving lives and boosting economic growth. Of course, stories of injustice, protest and resilience are waiting to be told all over the world.

Art and the artist plays a major role in our society. An artist leads, follows, uplifts and provokes us with their work. Creative thinking for social change comes from politicians, economists or business leaders. Likewise, it can come just as easily from musicians, journalists, and visual artists. Art not only provides pleasure and creative inspiration; it also creates a dialogue and brings important issues to the public eye.

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How Art Creates Social Change - RDN Arts

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Where the arts thrive, freedom of expression thrives. Art can directly empower the most vulnerable members of society. How does art create social change? Today, artists are committing themselves to create works that address pressing social issues. Using their platform to advocate for changes that the world needs.

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Hear artist Tania Bruguera and the Tate Neighbours speak about art as a tool for inspiring social action and creating institutional change.

Can art be a force for social change?

Useful art is about transforming people's lives, even on a small scale. It is art as activism and activism as art.

Like many artists working today, Cuban artist Tania Bruguera grapples with issues of power and control in her work. But she creates her installations and performances using an unusual medium - other people. Through her work, a single passerby or an entire local community can become an active participant in artistic creation. This type of art, which has been gaining momentum since the 1960s, can go by many names: socially engaged practice, community art, new genre public art, and activist art, among others. What unites these approaches is a new take on who holds the power, shifting agency away from institutions and even artists, and giving ordinary people the ability to create meaningful change in unprecedented ways.

As part of the Hyundai Commission: Tania Bruguera - 10,147,976, Bruguera brought together a group of residents local to Tate Modern to shape her project. These Tate Neighbours curated a series of community workshops at Tate Exchange, working to share their knowledge and equip visitors with the skills to create change in their local communities. But they also created lasting impact in the gallery, drawing up their own manifesto for art and social action, and even renaming an entire gallery building after local volunteer and activist Natalie Bell.

Despite all this, you might be wondering: where's the art? The answer is that it lies in the people who take part in it, the actions they take, and the change they create. Instead of just portraying or reflecting the power structures around us, activist or socially engaged art addresses those structures directly. In doing so, it becomes a kind of social or political currency, and creates the conditions for society to shift. It's arte útil, or "useful art."

Taking action in the gallery and beyond

If anything, art is about morals, about our belief in humanity. Without that, there simply is no art.

Other artists engaging with social practice include Suzanne Lacy, whose work spans visual art, film and performance art to installation, public practice and writing. All her work is linked by its engagement with social themes and urban issues, through conversation within communities of people. Her Crystal Quilt (1985-7) brought together 430 women aged over 60 in a live tableau, where they sat arranged in the pattern of a giant rug, speaking to one another about womahood, activism, and the lost potential of old age.

Like Tania Bruguera, Jeremy Deller moves away from making conventional objects and instead curates situations between groups of people. In 2001, Deller staged a recreation of the Battle of Orgreave, a confrontation between striking miners and police in the 1980s. He enlisted both skilled re-enactors and veterans of the original conflict, bringing to light issues around the innacuracy of memory and written history, and the power we hold to re-write it.

And some artists have been bringing this practice out into the world. Since the early 2000s, Theaster Gates has been creating spaces for communities to gather and openly discuss the issues affecting them, from race to politics to regeneration. His Dorchester Projects took a number of abandoned buildings in the South Side of Chicago and, through selling artworks made from local scrap materials, financed their redevelopment into a community hub of artist studios, libraries, and performance rooms.

In an increasingly uncertain world, artists working in social practice give us the tools to better understand our place in it, examine it, and change it.

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Hear artist Tania Bruguera and the Tate Neighbours speak about art as a tool for inspiring social action and creating institutional change. Can art be a force for social change? Like many artists working today, Cuban artist Tania Bruguera grapples with issues of power and control in her work.

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Feminist Art Examples

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In 1971 the art historian Linda Nochlin published a groundbreaking essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? In it she investigated the social and economic factors that had prevented talented women from achieving the same status as their male counterparts.

By the 1980s art historians such as Griselda Pollock and Rozsika Parker were going further, to examine the language of art history with its gender-loaded terms such as 'old master' and 'masterpiece'. They questioned the central place of the female nude in the western canon, asking why men and women are represented so differently. In his 1972 book Ways of Seeing the Marxist critic John Berger had concluded 'Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at'. In other words Western art replicates the unequal relationships already embedded in society.

In what is sometimes known as First Wave feminist art, women artists revelled in feminine experience, exploring vaginal imagery and menstrual blood, posing naked as goddess figures and defiantly using media such as embroidery that had been considered 'women's work'. One of the great iconic works of this phase of feminist art is Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, 1974-9.

Later feminist artists rejected this approach and attempted to reveal the origins of our ideas of femininity and womanhood. They pursued the idea of femininity as a masquerade - a set of poses adopted by women to conform to social expectations of womanhood.

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Tate glossary definition for feminist art: Art by women artists made consciously in the light of developments in feminist art theory since about 1970

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Climate Change Examples

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Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint (2020)

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Originally launched on August 13, 2015 (Earth Overshoot Day 2015), Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint is an ongoing exhibition that addresses the urgent need to live sustainably within the Earth's finite resources. The exhibition features a curated exhibition of artists whose work challenges us to reflect on our ecological footprint, as well as virtual tours from leading environmental organizations.

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Art has massive power to move people to social change.

By using their art as an innovative medium for awareness, artists become advocates, challenging the biggest issues of our time. Public art, then, capitalizes on the power of socially-aware works, reaching people in their everyday environments and confronting them with social injustice that is otherwise easily ignored.

From sculptures addressing systemic racism to murals celebrating Indigenous communities, public art is making a real-world social impact that deserves to be celebrated.

Though certainly not an exhaustive list, here are 15 recent, ongoing or upcoming public art projects working to advocate for human rights and improve communities.

1. Ethnicities

Created for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, this mural depicts five Indigenous people from five continents -- a concept based on the five Olympic rings. The bold, geometric mural -- created by Brazilian graffiti artist Eduardo Kobra -- is meant to show how "we are all connected," according to the artist. It currently holds the Guinness World Record for largest mural created by one artist.

Kobra conceptualized the 623-foot mural, called Ethnicities, or Etnias in Portuguese. More than 493 gallons of paint and about 3,500 cans of spray paint were used to complete the mural, which took more than two months to create.

2. AIDS Memorial Quilt

A traveling public art project, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was created in June 1987 at the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States. The ongoing project memorializes those who have died from HIV and AIDS through quilted panels, embellished with their names and symbolic imagery representing the person memorialized. Currently, the quilt is made up of more than 48,000 panels, with more added every year as more AIDS casualties are submitted to The NAMES Project Foundation.

The massive quilt is rarely displayed in its entirety, as it's become too large to display in many public spaces. Upcoming displays of the quilt can be found here. You can also view the quilt virtually here.

3. Field of Vision: A Garden for Others

In December 2015, artist and environmental activist Jenny Kendler was commissioned to create a butterfly garden in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. In creating Field of Vision: A Garden for Others, Kendler used reclaimed wood, ultraviolet LED lights and milkweed to create a garden in Louisville that would draw people back to an often-overlooked river, while also supporting vulnerable butterfly populations.

Kendler first designed the garden for pollinators, creating the art to primarily attracted monarch butterflies to a space where they could feed and lay eggs. All the elements are meticulously intentional -- the milkweed attracts butterflies, for example, while blacklight replicates the far-superior sight butterflies have compared to humans.

4. Invisible Homeless

Homeless populations are often ignored on the street. A British artist wanted to challenge this, creating a glass sculpture of a sleeping body resting on a bed of cardboard, to represent how homeless people struggle to be seen on city streets.

The glass figure, which was on display in Bristol, England, in late December 2015, was created in collaboration between artist Luke Jerram and UK-based youth homelessness charity 1625 Independent People.

5. Stop Telling Women To Smile

These simple posters, created by New York City artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, carry a big message about a type of gender injustice women face regularly: street harassment. The series, called Stop Telling Women To Smile in reference to a common catcall, started in the fall of 2012 and is ongoing by the artist.

The publicly displayed posters feature the portraits of women, along with a quote relaying their experiences with street harassment. Fazlalizadeh hopes the captions speak directly to offenders by placing the posters outside in public spaces where harassment happens.

6. Untitled refugee life jacket installation

This art installation by noted Chinese artist Ai Weiwei showcased 14,000 used life jackets previously worn by refugees traveling from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos. The artist, hoping to highlight the severity of the ongoing refugee crisis, tied the striking orange vests to pillars of the Konzerthaus Berlin to command the attention of the general public.

The installation was debuted in Berlin in February 2016 outside of the concert hall in Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt square.

7. Breathing Lights

Concentrated in areas with high levels of vacancy in Upstate New York, Breathing Lights is meant to show society and communities that there is life still lurking in vacant properties. Artist Adam Frelin and architect Barbara Nelson conceived the temporary installation, which will illuminate windows of empty buildings with warm light that gently fades on and off to mimic breathing.

The art piece is meant to shed light on the ongoing divestment from low-income communities in the upstate region using bold imagery. Breathing Lights will premiere in Albany, Schenectady and Troy in October and November. The project received funding and support from Bloomberg Philanthropies in early 2016.

8. The Za'atari Project

The Za'atari Project is an ongoing series of public art murals that engages Syrian refugees, especially children, in art to make refugee camps less sterile and more welcoming.

Through a partnership with several nonprofits, artist Joel Artista has traveled to the Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan for the past four years to help bring life to the camp. Many of the murals hinge on social issues, like access to water and hygiene. Artista says the activity is one of few structured activities for refugee children, many of which are out of school since being displaced.

9. Bodypainting at the Library

In June 2015, photographer Substantia Jones and artist Andy Golub collaborated to confront tourists and locals with radical body positivity -- on the front steps of the New York Public Library. Gloub painted three self-identified fat women with green body paint and fluid black lines. Jones, a noted activist for the fat positive movement, photographed the women, also talking to passersby about body positivity, fat visibility and sizeism.

From navigating police officers questioning the legality of the project to men sexualizing participants, the two were up against a lot of hate.

But Jones said there was no doubt: "We made some people think."

10. All Hands On Deck

This project tackling racial justice, dubbed All Hands On Deck, was created by artist Damon Davis and activist Michael Skolnik in the aftermath of the death of Michael Brown. The pair decided to tackle the issue of police violence through art, uplifting those on the frontlines of activism and calling impacted communities to action.

Davis took photos of activists involved in Ferguson protests, representing those "holding up" the current racial justice movement. Their hands were photographed in a "hands up, don't shoot" gesture, a symbol that became iconic after the death of Michael Brown. The posters were pasted on boarded buildings around Ferguson during the protests following the acquittal of Darren Wilson in the death of Brown.

11. Stand Tall, Stand Loud

The sculpture, created by artist Aaron Bell, ties the history of current racial discrimination to historical roots of black oppression. The bold work features a noose-like head on a muscular body with a captivating windmill-like part in the heart of the piece. The base of the work reads, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter," quoting Martin Luther King Jr.

Bell went through a lengthy fight to have the work publicly displayed in Riverside Park in New York City, as city officials were quoted to say the work was set to be "adjacent to an area regularly programmed with passive recreational activities such as yoga, Pilates and senior movement." The piece, however, is currently on display.

12. Inflatable Refugee

The title of this work says it all. This art project is a 20-foot inflatable refugee, hoping to focus the general public's attention on the refugee crisis. Dubbed a nomadic art project, the inflatable refugee has set out around the world to spread awareness in places like Venice, Melbourne and Copenhagen.

The work, created by Belgian visual artist collective Schellekens & Peleman, is made from the same material used to make the inflatable boats many refugees use to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

13. Non-Violence

This knotted gun, simply titled Non-Violence, was first created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd after the murder of John Lennon in 1980. Originally placed across the street from Lennon's home in New York City, the sculpture was moved to the U.N. Headquarters, calling for peace and non-violence.

Since then, however, it has become a symbol of the ongoing struggle for non-violence and gun control worldwide, serving as the symbol of the The Non-Violence Project, a nonprofit advocating for social change through violence-prevention programming.

There are currently 16 copies of the statue on display around the world, most of which are in Sweden.

14. Songs for Thomas Piketty

This may look like a regular boombox -- and, truly, it is. But Dutch visual artist Dries Verhoeven took an innovative approach to throwback device, using it to advocate for homeless populations in the Netherlands.

The art project, Songs for Thomas Piketty, was created in response to the Netherlands implementing a ban on panhandling. The " begging boomboxes" play a song about unity and ask passersby for spare change, collecting money for those who can't. The temporary installation was in the Netherlands in March 2016, with all money collected donated to charities for the homeless.

15. Untitled wall around Donald Trump's Walk of Fame star

This wall, conceptualized and constructed by the artist known as Plastic Jesus, was placed around the Hollywood Walk of Fame Star of Donald Trump on July 20, 2016 -- the same day Trump was officially nominated as the Republican Party's presidential nominee.

Complete with barbed wired and tiny "Keep Out" signs, the work played of Trump's controversial statements about building a wall on the southern border of the U.S. as part of a plan for immigration reform. The artist, known for progressive messages on social inequality, used the work to oppose Trump's comments.

"Personally, I've got nothing against Donald Trump," Plastic Jesus told The Huffington Post. "I have everything against his policies and the culture he's trying to create in America."

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15 public art projects that boldly advocate for social justice

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Art has massive power to move people to social change. By using their art as an innovative medium for awareness, artists become advocates, challenging the biggest issues of our time. Public art, then, capitalizes on the power of socially-aware works, reaching people in their everyday environments and confronting them with social injustice that is otherwise easily ignored.

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Kimberly Burnett

"I am a Milwaukee artist and illustrator. I have been drawing and painting since I was two, and art has always been my passion. I primarily work with oils and charcoal. My love of oils began as a child, when I studied the works of the Old Masters. I knew that I wanted to work with oils, after seeing what could potentially be accomplished with this medium. My passion is to blend my love of arts with social justice issues. I think art is a very powerful tool to use in the fight for justice and equality for everyone."
Subjects from Milwaukee Rescue Mission:
DORIS- "I really thought I could raise my child on my own and make it," she says. "But I couldn't." After a series of abusive relationships, life became overwhelming for Doris and her 2-year-old son. She lost her job and her home, forcing them to live out of their car. Today Doris is back on her feet and says God has used her experience to prepare her for future ministry with orphans and battered women like herself.

OTIS- After a difficult childhood, Otis fell into a life of alcohol and drugs. "I hit rock bottom so many times I lost count. I failed so many times, I thought that's all I'd ever be." But God had other plans. Eventually, Otis embarked on the path to recovery. Today, he is sober, healthy, employed and grateful for his new life.

LANETTE- Reeling from the abuse of one abusive relationship after another, Lanette was at her wit's end. But it was when she was laid off that she finally hit rock bottom. "I lost my job, my house, my sanity...life was horrible." Her life was turned upside down-to be turned right side up only when she found healing at MRM's Joy House, where she is working today to help other women in need of a fresh start.

PATRICK- When his wife unexpectedly left him after ten years of marriage, Patrick's broken heart led him to fall back into old habits-and "back into the bottle." He knew he'd hit rock bottom when he was arrested for drunk driving. After 30 days in jail, Patrick had no job, no place to live, and no idea how to emerge from the hole he had dug for himself. But today, through his recovery, Patrick is transformed-healthy, employed and sober for over two years.

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Elevating Voices: Visualizing Social Justice Through Art

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Kimberly Burnett "I am a Milwaukee artist and illustrator. I have been drawing and painting since I was two, and art has always been my passion. I primarily work with oils and charcoal. My love of oils began as a child, when I studied the works of the Old Masters.

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National Center for Civil and Human Rights

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Creating The Change They Wish to See: LGBTQ Artists & Their Activism

by Sam Landis

October is LGBTQ+ History Month, the intersection of two things I love - my LGBTQ+ community and history. In the LGBTQ+ community, we do not grow up learning our history in the U.S. Only a handful of states include it in their public school curriculums. This erasure of our existence is linked to the loneliness many LGBTQ+ people feel when coming of age. This is a time when we find we are different from our peers. We would benefit from historical examples to look to, yet school curriculums lack stories that mirror our own experiences. As far as most middle and high school history textbooks go, we do not exist.

Even in the arts, a centuries-long refuge for LGBTQ+ individuals, where I found my profession as a graphic designer. For example, as I write this, I am listening to Tschaikowsky-whom I recently learned struggled with his own male desire. Textbook authors who withheld the story deny us the full picture of his life. To divorce his life and music from his sexuality not only erases part of his identity , but detracts from the meaning you can find in his art. As I listen to Tschaikowsky's music now, I can feel that internal struggle he must have faced as a Queer person in the 19 th century.

We live in a moment when Pride is more mainstream than ever. Fortune 500 companies sponsor pride celebrations. Stores like Target stock up on rainbow merchandise leading into June. LGBTQ+ representation has expanded on TV, particularly in the last two decades, from early shows like The L-Word and Queer as Folk to Pose and Orange is the New Black. More shows center LGBTQ+ characters. Cis-centric shows with LGBTQ+ characters depict their relationships more fully, and ideas like marriage equality are established. During LGBTQ+ History Month, we must remember that a few decades ago, words like "gay" and "homosexual" were used only in hushed tones, if at all. Yet despite the stigma, there were some courageous enough to use their art to share their own queerness and activism with the world. Whether you are an LGBTQ+ person, an ally, or just someone curious to learn more about our beautiful community, my hope is to reveal the resilience of LGBTQ people as seen through the LGBTQ artists I have chosen to highlight.
Frida Kahlo
Like many artists, Frida Kahlo was far ahead of her time and was not appreciated in her life like she is revered now. Looking at Khalo's work I'm captivated by her ability to speak t o the intersections of her multitude of identities and experiences . Kahlo was the child of a German immigrant (her father) and indigenous Mexican (her mother) . She was disabled for most of her life after an accident as a teenager when a steel bar went through her pelvis . She was a socialist /communist and workers' rights activis t. Khalo was also a women's rights advocate , and - an LGBTQ icon . Kahlo had relationships with men and women , many iconic in their own right . They included her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, exiled political theorist painter Georgia O'Keeffe, and photographer Nickolas Muray . She also experimented with her own gender identity and gender expression as documented in photographs and her self-portraits . T hese self-portraits reveal her interior world . As Frida says, " I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better. Through her brutally honest art we see themes from her life and issues she championed : her indigenous heritage, her disability, addiction, class and race issues of the time, as well as conflicts of love and identity .

To learn more about Frida Kahlo and see her work visit : artsandculture.google.com/partner/ museo-frida-kahlo
Gilbert Baker
In 1978, Gilbert Baker conceived of a new symbol to represent the LGBTQ community, the rainbow flag, first displayed at San Francisco's 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade. The rainbow flag is a symbol our community still proudly uses today, with new interpretations being made throughout the years.

"A rainbow flag was a conscious choice, natural and necessary. The rainbow came from the earliest history as a symbol of hope... a rainbow flag would be ou modern alternative to the pink triangle." - Gilbert Baker

Baker's original flag included eight colored stripes, each with its own symbolic meaning: Pink - Sex, Red - Life, Orange - Healing, Yellow - The Sun, Green - Nature, Turquoise - Art & Magic, Blue - Serenity, and Purple - The Spirit. The pink and turquoise stripes were later dropped due to the cost of dye for those colors, resulting in the better-known six-color design usually seen today. That first year, Baker secured $1,000 to create two flags. The funds were spent on 1,000 yards of muslin, 58 inches wide, 10 pounds of natural dye in eight colors, 100 pounds of salt and ash, and the rest was for art supplies.
"The real connection to the public happens with confrontation at the boundaries of fear. Art is like a gun that way."
A lifelong activist, Gilbert Baker participated in protests against the Vietnam War, supported marijuana legalization efforts, and was involved in the gay-rights movement. Baker combined his gifts in the arts with his commitment to justice, using a range of mediums including sewing, painting, design, and performance. This fusion of mediums shine in Baker's humorously satirical performance art collaborations with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Sisters "use humor and wit to expose the forces of bigotry" and have raised millions of dollars for AIDS and LGBTQ+ causes since 1979. Baker continued creating innovative protest art until his death in 2017, but it is the rainbow flag that is his lasting legacy.

"It was his gift to the world, he told me when the flag first went up that he knew at that moment it was his life's work." - Cleve Jones (The Founder of The AIDS Quilt) speaking about his friend to the New York Times after his death.
Keith Haring"Art should be something that liberates your soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further."
Keith Haring was a popular artist in the 1980's and 90's whose imaginative visual style captured the interest of a broad audience from art collectors to kids. Haring believed that art should be for everyone, and focused his work in public spaces. He created a visual language of symbols and visual semantics designed to dialogue with his audience. He used this visual language to communicate ideas and start conversations that many people had previously found uncomfortable. Most notably he was outspoken about the AIDS crisis and drug epidemic. Haring used pieces like "Ignorance = Fear" to engage people with abstract ideas that have concrete consequences. Haring died from AIDS complications on February 16 th , 1990, but his art lives on and continues to speak to audiences.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent known for his work in the emerging graffiti scenes of the late 1970's and 80's. Basquiat's work addressed issues that remain sadly relevant today: race, poverty, class, and police brutality. He garnered acclaim at an early age and at 22 was the youngest artist to ever be exhibited at the Whitney Biennial. Embraced by the art world, Basquiat soared to international fame. In 1982 his work was exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Rome, Rotterdam and Zurich. In 1985 he appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine.

Keith Haring, a friend of Basquiat, said of his work: "The stuff I saw on the walls was more poetry than graffiti. They were sort of philosophical poems ... On the surface they seemed really simple, but the minute I saw them I knew that they were more than that. From the beginning he was my favorite artist."
Monica Helms
Monica Helms is a trans military veteran and the creator of the trans pride flag. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her wife. She was inspired to create the trans pride flag after talking to her friend, Mike Page, the creator of the bisexual pride flag.
"One day, I woke up with the idea for the colors-the traditional color, light blue, for boys, pink for girls, and a single white stripe for those who are transitioning, gender-neutral, or intersex. I took it to protests, marches, funerals, transgender days of remembrance. In 2013, I started seeing [my] trans Pride flags flying in other countries. On August 19, 2014, the anniversary of the day I created the flag, the Smithsonian accepted my donation of the original flag."
You can follow Monica Helms on Twitter at
Tourmaline
Tourmaline is an organizer, activist, writer, and filmmaker focused especially on trans rights. Some of her films include: Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2018) documenting the lives of trans activists and icons Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, The Personal Things (2016) about another trans rights icon, Miss Major, and a film about Eqyptt LeBeija named Atlantic is a Sea of Bones (2017) . Her work hangs in the MoMA, Tate Modern, and the Brooklyn Museum. She was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2020. Before she began filmmaking, she was a community organizer for Black, trans, queer, gender nonconforming, and disabled communities.

"Freedom dreams are born when we face harsh conditions not with despair, but with the deep knowledge that these conditions will change- that a world filled with softness and beauty and care is not only possible but inevitable."

⁣"⁣I'm not satisfied with Black trans lives mattering; I want Black trans lives to be easy, to be pleasurable, and to be filled with lush opportunities. I want the abundance we've gifted the world-the art, the care, the knowledge, and the beauty-to be offered back to us tenfold."

To learn more about Tourmaline and her work visit: queer-art.org/tourmaline

Each of these artists boldly creates from their queerness and impacts the world in their own unique way. They remind us to be true to that which is within us, that we can create beauty from pain, and to not be afraid to make those around us uncomfortable. May we find strength in their stories and inspiration from their art to create the change we wish to see in the world.

I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to share with you a project that is launching this month which I have founded along with some other amazing individuals and organizations - Atlanta LGBTQ+ History Project. The project will gather, share, and preserve the stories and the rich LGBTQ+ history of the Atlanta community. You can learn more about the project by visiting atlantalgbtqhistoryproject.org.

More LGBTQ History Resources

GLBT Archives: glbthistory.org/online-resources

Teaching LGBTQ History: lgbtqhistory.org

Outwords: theoutwordsarchive.org

About Sam Landis

Samuel Landis is the senior designer at The National Center for Civil and Human Rights where they shepherd The Center's brand in c ollaborat ion with the marketing and exhibition team s, managing all design aesthetics for the institution. Before coming to The Center, they worked in a variety of marketing & design agencies, non-profits, corporate and higher education environments . They moved to Atlanta to attend Savannah College of Art in Design where they received their BFA, graduating Magna Cum Laude. While there, Samuel's passion for social justice and design was ignited in his role as president of SCAD Atlanta's LGBTQ student organizatio n. They are currently an LGBTQ Institute Fellow & Co-Founder of the Atlanta LGBTQ History Project. As a designer, artist, and advocate, Samuel is driven by a desire to connect people to stories that matter and create art that shares the beauty of being human. Connect with Sam: samlandis.com Instagram: LinkedIn : https://www.instagram.com/iam_samlandis/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-landis-609ab8a9/

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Creating The Change They Wish to See: LGBTQ Artists & Their Activism - National Center for Civil and Human Rights

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by Sam Landis October is LGBTQ+ History Month, the intersection of two things I love - my LGBTQ+ community and history. In the LGBTQ+ community, we do not grow up learning our history in the U.S.

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MINI-MURALS For Racial Justice Artwork and community events - PUBLIC ART FOR RACIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION

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The PARJE MINI-MURAL project is a collection of oversized coloring book pages. They form a compact portable "mural" created during specific community events and engage audiences in racial justice conversations while creating art! During events, local children and adults create art, foster discussion, and explore historical topics of local and national importance.